To celebrate its first twenty-five years of vibrant music making, the Vasari Singers commissioned ten composers each to write an anthem that might reflect the state of the world at the start of the new millennium. Their brief suggested that their work should be able to site comfortably within the context of a cathedral Evensong, but that it could also look beyond any constraints of Liturgy or formal religious doctrine to embrace a wider, more ecumenical audience; something more humanistic perhaps, that might connect more relevantly with multi-cultural, multi-faith societies of the world in the 21st century. This is an amazing variety of anthems concluding with Ward Swingle's (of Swingle Singers fame) ode to the earth and the environment. |
